Writings, Ramblings, and Reflections

Transportation in the 1880s

Today, I’m a guest on the Petticoats and Pistols blog. I’m also running a giveaway over there. Stop over there today or this weekend to find out how to enter. In the meantime, here’s the first part of the post I wrote for the blog.

Today, we can get around the world in hours. We take for granted that if we want to visit our friends or family anywhere in our country or around the world, we just have to hop in our car and drive a few hours to get to them. Or we can get on a plane and fly there in an even shorter amount of time. But what was it like in 1880 before cars had been invented and the first working plane was another 13 years in the coming?

I found out while doing some research for my fifth novel, The Solid Rock (due out Spring 2016). I’ll share a few of them with you.

By horse, the most you could go without killing the animal is 50 miles, and that’s only on flat ground with a really good horse. In normal conditions, 20-40 miles per day was the limit. A wagon would be even less since the oxen would be pulling all your belongings and most, if not all, of your family. By train you could go up to 50 miles per hour! Read the rest of the post here